The Sound and Safe Protocol in London

Mental and physical health combine to make an effective human being. If the psychological wellbeing of kids is considered equally important in their upbringing, then later in adulthood, they might not have the complications most adults face when it comes to mental disorders. The safe and sound protocol was designed to take care of the mental health and well-being of both children and adults who suffer from communication problems and benefit greatly. This program is mostly used in the beginning stages of therapy to enhance the effects of other methodologies used later on in the process.

What is the Safe and Sound protocol?

The safe and sound protocol is a five-day auditory intervention that has been outlined for children as young as three years and adults to improve mental health and regulate social communication skills. It can help reduce stress and auditory sensitivity while enhancing both children’s and adults’ overall mental resilience.

You can use safe and sound protocol for adults and children that have issues with:

• Social and emotional difficulties
• Auditory sensitivities
• Attention related problems that can cause difficulty in learning and social engagements.
• Anxiety and trauma-related conditions.

The safe and sound protocol encompasses various auditory exercises and techniques specifically built to provide a sense of safety, calmness, and improve the individual’s mental health over the continuation of sessions.

While working with children as young as three years old, we are focused on how can we enhance their chance to grasp knowledge or information faster and better than before. This program has turned out to be exceedingly favorable with children who show autism symptoms, also referred to as neurotypical children. It is incredibly beneficial while working with adults as well. It directly targets our physiological state which enhances our ability to process human speech and gives us an ability to perform much better under stressful circumstances.

How does Safe and Sound Protocol work?

This program is based on Dr. Porges’ Polyvagal Theory which is derived from twenty years of extensive research. It focuses on the relationship between the autonomic nervous system and social-emotional processes.

This program consists of a variety of auricular exercises systematically invented to stimulate and challenge the autonomic nervous system by using a particular musical sound.

The SSP stimulates the autonomic nervous system by focusing on the frequency envelope of human speech. These frequencies are particularly advantageous to improve the functioning of two cranial nerves, which are very important for an individual’s overall social behavior.

Cranial Nerve 4, also referred to as the Facial Nerve helps to focus on human voice and tune out irrelevant frequencies. While the Cranial Nerve10b, also known as Vagus Nerve, enables self-soothing and autonomic regulation.

What is the Safe and Sound Protocol useful for?

The SSP helps children and adults in three specific areas of development.

Social communication

The safe and sound protocol is a gateway to the Social Engagement System and it can have tremendous effects on how an individual interacts with the world. This allows for calmer states in mind and improvements in alertness and rapidity of emotions. It can help people develop better communication skills in areas such as better eye contact and facial expressiveness. It can also enhance the ability to understand speech and gain much better emotional control among other benefits.

Physiological state

When the Social Engagement System is activated, our physiological balance shifts. It allows individuals to activate a parasympathetic state by reducing emotional stress. This improves behavioral regulation as these areas are responsible for bonding, learning, digestion, and cell repairs. Under flight/fight conditions there is rising tension in the face and throat muscles. SSP primarily re-establishes the calm states and softens facial tension and establishes prosody in the voice. Thus it helps by allowing the person to have more control over their facial expressions and emotional attunement.

Sound sensitivity

Being sensitive to sound is a prevalent symptom of a number of psychological disorders. Individuals in such conditions may become disturbed or distracted when they are faced with continual background noise. They may undergo problems such as finding it difficult to differentiate human speech from background noise. The safe and sound protocol can enhance auditory processing to a significant degree. This can help people with hearing problems to decipher human speech from background noise. Thus improving one’s hearing ability and allowing a person to hear equally from both ears.

Following the successful completion of such programs, children and adults can better pay attention in school, social communications, and everyday life and attain a more calmed and physiologically better state.

What to expect when using this treatment?

A professional who uses the SSP in adjunction with other treatments in therapy can administer the safe and sound protocol. During the session, the process involves listening to filtered music that has been composed to activate the stapedius muscle in the inner ear specifically. This is the muscle that plays an important role in how we process speech, facial expression, and other cues related to socializing.

Exercising and strengthening the muscle helps the individual regulate their responses to stress, emotions, or sounds that they find problematic to control. The individual undergoing the treatment has to come with a guardian for 5 days and spend on average 60 minutes each day or as instructed by the professional.